As enterprises embrace digital transformation, solution providers must take several steps to help their customers develop a secure and automated technology infrastructure. Implementing new server technology is an important first step.
As you guide your customer along the path of digital transformation, keep in mind these five recommendations to ensure the solution ultimately yields positive results . . . for both parties.
1. Improve IT processes.
Before purchasing automation tools, take full inventory of your customer’s workflow around IT infrastructure. Are there manual steps that could be made more efficient? Can you identify any steps that are no longer required with modern infrastructure? Are there any management steps that can be removed as governance transitions over to code? Taking the time necessary to see the full picture before enacting a solution will help ensure the transformation is successful over the long-term.
2. Keep your customer’s business objectives at the forefront.
Recent trends among modern enterprises prove that today’s businesses depend on end-to-end service automation to improve their speed of service. While self-service capabilities have reduced the production time behind these services, it’s far from frictionless. One of the key things that enterprises neglect to consider – but you should keep top of mind – is that technology infrastructure must stay compliant and be governed by organizational guardrails. This means not only including automated enforcement and remediation of these policies in the transformation plan, but also making sure it is a key focus of that plan, especially given the volume and complexity of today’s infrastructure.
3. Make the automation of infrastructure services a key focus.
If we’re being honest, many of today’s developers are focused solely on application logic and don’t really concern themselves with the finer intricacies of infrastructure. While on-premises infrastructure will remain relevant in tomorrow’s business model, it’s your job as a solution provider to help automate and abstract the infrastructure services across silos and lifecycle stages to take care of all your customer’s interdependencies.
4. Be hyper-aware of security holes in hardware.
The security risks of today are considerably different from yesterday. Businesses are being attacked from all sides and must set in place security measures that protect their data. A common misconception is that these security risks are software-based. But security vulnerabilities exist at the hardware layer, too. Infrastructure — especially when heavily distributed — can increase your customer’s risk of attack by orders of magnitude. As a solution provider, you must not only convince your customer to embrace infrastructure innovation, but also help them understand it is necessary for them to improve their company’s overall security posture.
5. Work with a trusted IT services partner.
Modernized IT organizations understand the importance of a trusted IT services partner that can help guide the automation journey. For customers newer to the digital transformation process, it important to take the time to educate them on the value of bringing in a partner that can help ensure the automation of IT will not only optimize their strategy, but also be one that is holistic and helps smooth out any bumps over the long term.
Indeed, enterprises with new servers are already seeing many tangible benefits following their decision to upgrade. According to a recent study by Forrester*:
• 55% were able to reduce infrastructure complexity and achieve higher system reliability.
• 54% claim they see improved security and compliance.
• 13.7% -- Average reduction of time spent remediating vulnerabilities.
• 6.3% -- Average cut to operating expenses.
Dell Technologies makes it easy to begin the digital transformation process with its Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers. Powered by high-performance 3rd Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors, coupled with the latest OpenManage Enterprise systems management technology, the end-to-end PowerEdge server portfolio enables businesses to benefit from:
• Enhanced performance
• Improved memory speed
• Easy scalability
• Simple upgradability
Learn more about Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers.
* Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell, March 2021
